_Crooked_ eclipses: as coming athwart the Sun's apparent course. Wordsworth, thinking probably of the 'Venus' and the 'Lucrece,' said finely of Shakespeare: 'Shakespeare _could_ not have written an Epic; he would have died of plethora of thought.' This prodigality of nature is exemplified equally in his Sonnets. The copious selection here given (which from the wealth of the material, required greater consideration than any other portion of the Editor's task),--contains many that will not be fully felt and understood without some earnestness of thought on the reader's part. But he is not likely to regret the labour. 26 42 _upon misprision growing_: either, granted in error, or, on the growth of contempt. -- 43 With the tone of this Sonnet compare Hamlet's 'Give me that man That is not passion's slave' &c. Shakespeare's writings show the deepest sensitiveness to passion:--hence the attraction he felt in the contrasting effects of apathy. 26 44 _grame_: sorrow. Renaissance influences long impeded the return of English poets to the charming realism of this and a few other poems by Wyat. 28 45 Pandion in the ancient fable was father to Philomela. 29 47 In the old legend it is now Philomela, now Procne (the swallow) who suffers violence from Tereus. This song has a fascination in its calm intensity of passion; that 'sad earnestness and vivid exactness' which Cardinal Newman ascribes to the master-pieces of ancient poetry. 31 50 _proved_: approved. -- 51 _censures_: judges. -- 52 Exquisite in its equably-balanced metrical flow. 32 53 Judging by its style, this beautiful example of old simplicity and feeling may, perhaps, be referred to the earlier years of Elizabeth. _Late_ forgot: lately. 35 57 Printed in a little Anthology by Nicholas Breton, 1597. It is, however, a stronger and finer piece of work than any known to be his.--St. 1 _silly_: simple; _dole_: grief; _chief_: chiefly. St. 3 _If there be_ ...: obscure: Perhaps, if there be any who speak harshly of thee, thy pain may plead for pity from Fate. This poem, with 60 and 143, are each graceful variations of a long popular theme. 36 58 _That busy archer:_ Cupid. _Descries_: used actively; _points out_.--'The last line of this poem is a little obscured by transposition. He means, _Do they call ungratefulness there a virtue?_' (C. Lamb). 37 59 _White Iope_: suggested, Mr. Bullen notes, by a passage in Propertius (iii, 20) describing Spirits in the lower world: Vobiscum est Iope, vobiscum candida Tyro. 38 62 _cypres_ or cyprus,--used by the old writers for _crape_: whether from the French _crespe_ or from the Island whence it was imported. Its accidental similarity in spelling to _cypress_ has, here and in Milton's Penseroso, probably confused readers. 39 63 _ramage_: confused noise.